Glad tidings spread throughout Logres. After years of his barons asking, King Arthur was to take a wife. He had chosen Guinevere, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in all of Britain, the daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard. The ceremony would be held in Carlion at Easter.
Earl Robert of Salisbury summoned his vassals to him: Sir Taedi, Sir Xavier, Lady Elspeth, Lady Svenhilde, and Zebediah. Sir Taedi was a loyal but unexceptional knight who had served guard duty in Salisbury for many years. Sir Xavier was a relative of Sir Gherard, who had come over from the continent to escape from war. Zebediah, meanwhile, came from further abroad: a Jew from beyond Germania, he and his people had come to Britain to avoid persecution and had settled in Sir Mabon's old estate. The Earl wished to decide what Salisbury should present to the King as a wedding present. After rejecting the idea of building a new allegorical zoo ("...a reminder of my mother's mental infirmities...") or venturing into the Forest Sauvage once more ("haven't we lost enough knights to that place?"), Svenhilde suggested investigating the cursed old Roman fortress of Dolorous Garde. That castle was on an island just off the coast past the Roman Wall, and was said to be guarded by lions, copper giants, and the ghosts of the dead.
So it was that a short time later, a ship anchored in a bay just off the coast of the island, and the knights and ladies went ashore to see what treasure they might be able to find to present to the High King. Past the bay, much of the island was forested, and the keep itself could be seen atop a steep hill overlooking the area. Along the shoreline, the cliffs grew hazardous, and the ruins of a Cymric ship that had been wrecked upon the rocks still sat there, its tattered flag blowing in the wind. Sir Taedi, who was nominally in charge, set up a camp in the bay. Sir Zebediah went to investigate the shipwreck, but the rocks were slippery and hazardous, and he decided to withdraw. Svenhilde consulted the runes (danger - failure - unexpected outcomes) and sent her crow familiar Hermes to scout out the island, but he did not return.
The group decided to press inland, when they were ambushed by an immense lion. Only Elspeth was alert enough to react. She had become proficient with the bow during her time living as an outlaw, but the horror of the lion was too great, and she snapped her bowstring. The knights were flung about by the lion, but Sir Xavier mustered his strength and dealt it a mighty blow that sent the beast fleeing, bleeding profusely. They decided to let the beast go; Svenhilde bandaged the wounded, and then they continued their hike up the hill.
At the castle, two immense statues of copper men stood outside the main gate. Svenhilde suspected magic, and so the group skirted around to avoid them. On the west wall, an old rope hung from an earlier explorer. It looked dangerously aged. Elspeth clambered up the rope. At the top of the wall, the body of the explorer lay, chewed down to bones. His wailing ghost flew at Elspeth, but she ignored it. It disappeared, and she dropped a new rope for the others to climb up. Once on the palisade, the group looked down into the courtyard. Stairs on the east wall led down from the wall into it. In the middle, a perfectly round rock was sunk into the ground, and two more lions lazed around it. In the north-east corner, a keep was set inside the wall, with a door that could be reached from the courtyard.
Rather than try to sneak past the lions, the group decided to try and confront the lions from up on the wall. The lions charged up the stairs, and Elspeth peppered them with arrows as they approached. However, it seemed to only enrage them, and the battle on the walls quickly went wrong. Sir Zebediah fell off the wall into the courtyard. Elspeth and Svenhilde pulled the two ropes over to the other side of the wall, and the group fled into the courtyard, and then made their way to the keep with the lions right behind them.
The central keep showed signs of the black magician who had lived there, but he had removed all of his belongings before he left. The group found an escape route, which let them return to the shore without having to enter the lion-haunted forest. It could also be useful for any future attempt to reclaim Dolorous Garde.
However, the group now had nothing to show for their time. Svenhilde (now reunited with Hermes, who had been distracted) and Sir Xavier made their way on to the shipwreck. In the hold, several water-bloated and decomposing bodies floated, including the body of a young child. One of the bodies, obviously a knight, opened his eyes and ordered Svenhilde to take a chest and see that it was delivered to Sir Hervis of Revel, the last heir of Caercolun, or suffer its curse. She agreed, and the eyes shut again. The group buried the bodies, and speculated that this ship must have fled Caercolun when it was conquered by the Angles, years ago. The young boy must have been the Duke's infant son, the heir to the duchy. They probably were blown off-course in a storm and wrecked.
The group decided to present the story and the box to King Arthur, so that he could restore it to Sir Hervis. Meanwhile, Elspeth's young page Hubert made a wooden guardsman for a badly wounded Sir Taedi, and they talked about the role of knights. Sir Zebediah also tracked down the lion that Sir Xavier had wounded - it had since bled to death - and claimed its pelt as an additional present. Then they set sail and returned without mishap to Salisbury.
It was not long before everyone was gathered in Carlion for the wedding. There was a tremendous bustle as everyone vaguely important was invited to attend. Guinevere was due to arrive at any time, there was not enough food for all the guests, extra stables were having to be organised for horses, and King Arthur was nowhere to be found! (ooc: Players who'd seen the musical Camelot smiled here.) However, despite Sir Kay nearly having a heart attack from stress, everything turned out fine. The most important nobles entered the Cathedral of Saint Cadoc to watch the wedding, while the knights had to wait outside. Finally, the church-bells began to sound, and the royal couple emerged: the High King grinning inanely, the High Queen radiant. Sir Taedi and Sir Zebediah immediately fell in love with her.
For the rest of the day, King Arthur received his wedding gifts from his barons. On the next day, a decree was issued, that the High King and Queen would be presenting splendid presents to all assembled. Sir Taedi simply asked for a shield, and told the story of how he had been mauled by lions earlier that month. His words amused the High King, who gave him his own personal shield, as well as a pouch of silver. Lady Svenhilde asked for help establishing a school of medicine, which Queen Guinevere agreed to sponsor generously. Sir Zebediah asked to be acknowledged as a knight, and was knighted by Queen Guinevere. Sir Xavier tried to claim an excessive gift by reminding the High King of his guilt in not supporting King Ban and King Bors on the continent, but unsuccessfully. (He then spent much of the feast subtly insulting King Arthur). Lady Elspeth asked for new dancing shoes, as an opportunity to dance for Guinevere, who was extremely impressed - Elspeth might, after all, be the greatest dancer in all Logres!
That night, at a great feast, Guinevere's dowry had been prepared: the round table of Uther Pendragon, around which Uther had once tried to unite Britain. King Arthur declared that he intended to institute the Knights of the Round Table, the 150 greatest knights in the world. The names of the first knights were magically written upon the chairs, and they took their seats - though one seat, the Siege Perilous, was left empty on pain of death, for the best knight who would ever live.
At this point, a strange event happened. A white stag bounded into the room, pursued by a white dog, and then another sixty black hounds behind it. The stag left; a knight seized the dog and departed also. Then a beautiful woman rode into the hall and demanded the return of her dog, but another knight in black armour entered, seized her, and departed also. Merlin declared that this was the purpose of the Round Table - to undertake strange and marvelous quests, so as to serve as an inspiration for the world. King Arthur nominated three who had been knighted that day to undertake the first quest of the Round Table. Sir Gawain would go after the white hart, Sir Tor would follow the white hound, and King Pellinore (who had forgotten being knighted, and so asked to be knighted again) would rescue the lady. The three questing knights immediately departed.
Over the next few days, great festivities were held in Carlion, and a mighty tournament, while word drifted back of the three heroes. Lady Elspeth continued to ingratiate herself with Queen Guinevere, while Sir Xavier made connections and planted the seeds of future intrigues. Sir Zebediah also made friends, while Sir Taedi fought well in the tournament, and Lady Svenhilde gathered support for her medical college. They also amused themselves in what ways seemed best to them. During the tournament, Svenhilde's friend Sir Griflet offered to champion her honour against an older and far more experienced knight, Sir Simeon, who had been calling her a witch and a fornicator. Svenhilde did not know how to react, and so Sir Griflet made the challenge. Everyone expected him to fail, and Svenhilde's position to be made worse, but Sir Griflet knocked Sir Simeon senseless with a single buffet. Meanwhile, the three knights returned, with various levels of success - Sir Gawain in particular had disgraced himself, and swore a mighty oath to always aid women in need for the rest of his life. Merlin took the young woman that Sir Tor had rescued away. She was Nimue, the adopted daughter of Esther, and the great enchanter intended to train her as his successor.
As the celebrations drew to a close, an unexpected visitor arrived at Carlion. Saexwulf of Sussex, a Saxon warlord, arrived with greetings and gifts from King Aelle to King Arthur. King Aelle had retrieved many of the relics stolen from Amesbury when the monastery was attacked by the Saxons of Essex, and returned them as a wedding present. There was much discussion about what this act of generosity meant, and if a new conflict with the Saxons was on the horizon...
